


Almost Christmas Eve

by T Verano (t_verano)



Series: December, This Time Around [18]
Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: 2015 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "candles", Christmas fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2020-05-07 16:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19213249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: December with the guys a couple of years post-TSbyBS.Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve, when Blair will drive up to the cabin.Jim waits.





	Almost Christmas Eve

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2015 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "candles"

_Almost Christmas Eve._

Jim picked up one of the ornaments Blair had arranged on the mantelpiece, looked at it without really seeing it, and put it back down. Walked across to the pair of big windows beside the front door and stared out into the moonlight for a couple of minutes, not really seeing that, either. Walked over to the kitchen alcove, circled the table, walked back towards the fireplace.

Rolled his eyes at himself. In another minute, he'd actually be pacing — not quite up to the Sandburg gold-star standard for pacing, true, but _pacing._ Which wasn't going to get Blair here any faster than if he just sat down peacefully on the sofa in front of the fire with a cup of coffee and the copy of _Arctic Dreams_ he'd brought along.

Anyway, if Blair got an early start in the morning, he'd be here by eight. Twelve hours wasn't that long to wait.

Jim glanced at the phone. It was too early to call; Blair had said he probably wouldn't be home before nine, and Jim wasn't in the mood to play phone tag.

So, two hours, maybe more, before he could talk to Blair. Twelve before he could see him.

It really wasn't that long to wait.

Jim's glance fell on the chest beside the sofa. One of the candles Blair used for meditation was sitting there on its handmade pottery saucer and Jim found himself picking up the thick, pale-gold column and inhaling the faint scent of honey.

Beeswax, like all of Blair's candles. If Jim lit the candle the scent would intensify. 

If he lit the candle, he could close his eyes and imagine that Blair was already here, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch, meditating, his face serene.

If he lit the candle —

— it wouldn't conjure Blair up any earlier, no matter how much he wanted it to.

***************************

The candle had been burning for five minutes when he heard it: the growl of an engine, growing stronger every moment. He focused his hearing farther, into the car itself — into the rented SUV, with its radio playing Christmas carols and its driver singing along — and Christ, he was going to rip Blair a new one for driving up here tonight instead of waiting for daylight tomorrow when it was safer. Winter was no time to be playing chicken with these mountain roads.

Headlights swept across the windows, and Jim closed his eyes, felt all the knotted-up tension leave the back of his neck, the restless adrenaline of earlier turn into focused anticipation. Blair was here.

Blair was _here._

He could wait until tomorrow to yell at Blair for being an idiot and driving up here tonight. Right now, it was more important to go outside, pull the driver-side door open just as Blair killed the engine, and —

— and stare blankly into the SUV's interior. "Chief," Jim said calmly, "why is there a stuffed elf buckled into the passenger seat?

**Author's Note:**

>  _Arctic Dreams_ is a mesmerizing, imagination-opening non-fiction book by Barry Lopez about the Arctic Circle. The descriptions of the light, the air, the cold, the landscape, the wildlife, _everything,_ are extraordinary. (I think Jim would like this book. :-))


End file.
